Guiding question: How
is Germany's history different from other countries' histories?

Since the projector wasn't working on Wednesday, I took the first part
of today's lecture to show and review the images from the Lecture
2: "What is Germany?" (they are in that web page).

World War I headline
used in film to show Germany's history of aggression

Then I showed the first 20 minutes of the 1945 US Army film
Here is Germany, which was made to prepare soldiers who
had not seen combat to go to Germany for the US occupation after the May
8, 1945 unconditional surrender. The film was, however, never used for
its intended purpose.

"Great questions of the day will not be decided by majorities,
but by iron and blood."

"As soon as anybody can show me that it is sound policy, I
shall be equally satisfied to see our troops fire at the French or
the Russians, the English or the Austrians."
[professor's note: this sounds like a justification for NOT starting
a war with them!]

23 minutes into film: reenactment of assassination
of Austrian archduke in Sarajevo, July 1914

Great War (World War I) starts with great fervor

the US feels compelled to enter the war: tanks, trenches

surrender and armistice, celebrating and fraternization among soldiers

Was this a reason of optimism??

... under the surface they stayed the same, same teachers, same
general staff

"Carl Schmidt" never saw an occupying army, but rather
an armistice instead of an unconditional surrender.
Why should he accept the shameful treaty of Versailles?
He blamed the men who signed the peace treaty.
Footage of demobilization under the terms of the treaty

The film goes on to ask how Germany was able to rearm so quickly under
the cycle of hyperinflation and depression. An unholy quartett of:

militarists, state officials, industrialists, and landowners

to which Hitler added a fifth: gangsters [35 mins]

the film runs through the Nazi period, then after about 47
minutes begins the conclusion:

How to ensure that it won't happen again?
Unconditional surrender, removal of general staff, occupying armies,
new state officials, new textbooks made in the US

We come as conquerers, not liberators

Germany must rid itself of the tradition of Frederick, Bismarck

only then can a cultured Germany join the peaceful nations of
the world

ends to the strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"

Postcard from ca. 1934
showing 4 German leaders in the tradition of Mt. Rushmore (begun 1927,
Washington 1934, Jefferson 1936, Lincoln 1937, Roosevelt 1939; see Nat'l
Park Service history).
The German caption read:
"What the king [Frederick the Great] conquered, the prince [Bismarck]
shaped, the Field Marshal [Hindenburg] defended, was rescued and united
by the soldier [Hitler]."